The present invention relates generally to the field of database systems and, in particular, an approach that provides a flexible tool for migrating data from one table in a relational database to another.
A database is an organized collection of information, commonly referred to as data. Data contained within a database is often maintained within tables. Access to a database is provided by a database management system (DBMS). A DBMS is an application which allows the storage of data within a database, the modification of that data within the database, as well as the extraction of the data from the database.
DBMS's can differ widely in the way information is stored, effecting how quickly and flexibly the DBMS can access data. One type of a DBMS is a relational database management system wherein data is stored in the form of related tables. Specifically, a relational DBMS usually contains multiple databases, with each database containing one or more tables and each table containing one or more columns.